Surreal nightmare for the KH-7 Epsilon Team

The KH-7 Epsilon Team wants to make history at the 2023 Dakar, as the first truck competing in the Dakar to use hydrogen to compete. But when they arrived in Saudi Arabia, they encountered a sad surprise: The FIA ​​would not allow them to compete in their classifications unless they agreed to stop running on hydrogen and do so on diesel. Fortunately, ASO reacted quickly to create a new category in which only this vehicle will compete, although it will do so with great difficulty in achieving its goal of reaching the ultimate goal: they will have to start all stages at the end, 15 minutes at the end. . They will find a route that is messed up and destroyed, with the particularity that they don’t have any truck behind to help them if they have problems. Moreover, they will arrive at night at the end of all the stages and in the final stretch, the T5.2 trucks will not be there, so if they get stuck, no one will help them. The historic challenge of being the first truck to finish a Dakar using hydrogen becomes very high. It is itself fighting the race. But now it will be more. A deed.

The team’s official statement:

The KH-7 Epsilon Team experienced a dramatic change of scenery and expectations at the start of the 2023 Dakar. The last-minute cancellation, by the International Automobile Federation (FIA), of the creation of the category T5.U Hydrogen , which had to combine trucks with animated alternative fuel, led to the ASO’s creation of a new division called Challenge New Energy. This proposal allows the Spanish team to officially stay in the race, but forces them to start all stages 15 minutes after the last participant and prevents them from providing assistance to other competitors who have problems during the course.

The KH-7 Epsilon team’s MAN is, as of yesterday, the first hydrogen-powered vehicle in history to start a Dakar. However, the path of any pioneer is never easy, and the experience of Jordi Juvanteny (driver), José Luis Criado (co-driver) and Jordi Ballbé (navigator) is a new example of this. This is his story:

The project of the Spanish team began in March with a previous meeting with the ASO (Amaury Sport Organization), the organization of the Dakar, which accepted the proposal and shared it with the FIA ​​​​(International Automobile Federation). The federal entity has given its approval, understanding that the proposal is “realistic and feasible” to compete in the most difficult rally in the world, which continues to work with the aim of promoting similar initiatives to decarbonize career.

The first setbacks came last December, a week after MAN passed pre-boarding technical checks in France, and the vehicle was already sailing to Arabia. The FIA ​​communicated by email that none of the projects linked to hydrogen, except for the KH-7 Epsilon Team, will go to the start of the Dakar, so it has decided to postpone the implementation of the T5.U Hydrogen regulation. Finally, the day before yesterday, December 30, and after many number changes, the organization contacted the team to inform them that they were not in the FIA ​​​​T5 category and had to compete within the framework of a new formed division: the New Energy Challenge. The organization gave, yes, an alternative to Juvanteny, Criado and Ballbé to return to the T5 division: abandon hydrogen and opt for traditional diesel.

Faced with this dichotomy, the members of the KH-7 Epsilon Team decided to go ahead with their initial plans and tackle the 2023 Dakar with their MAN powered by a mixture of hydrogen and diesel. However, this path implies two particularly well-known disabilities: the first and most important affects their classification, because, even if they compete with the real, controlled race and their own daily classification, they are forced to start all stages 15 minutes after the last contestant, regardless of their position at the end of each day. Due to this situation, the 2023 edition is the most important challenge in the team’s history, as it has to complete the daily route in the worst possible conditions, with the road surface seriously damaged due to the passage of all the vehicles to caravan and sail for many. more time. in the evening, before the last one starts every day. In addition, this new daily schedule will change their help schedule, which will have to completely rearrange their exam dynamics.

Added to this limitation is another aspect that conflicts, according to regulation, with one of the hallmarks of the KH-7 Epsilon: its status as ‘Guardian Angels of the Dakar’. The team has always been highly appreciated by other participants for their availability and altruistic help in all kinds of circumstances, which will radically change this 2023, because, since they belong to a category other than those controlled by the FIA, they will not be helpless against its competitors from the official divisions. Any race crew, therefore, risks being included in the case of assisting parts of the KH-7 Epsilon Team, if no changes are made to this section of the FIA.

All this connection of events does not blind the enthusiasm of Jordi Juvanteny, José Luis Criado and Jordi Ballbé before the Dakar 2023, as the driver of the KH-7 Epsilon Team details: “Our team alone followed , which in 2023, with part of the objectives of the Dakar Future program, which works on the future decarbonization of the competition from the use of fuels such as hydrogen. We believed that other formations would come this year, but this is not possible. In any case, and despite the extreme limitations of this new scenario, we will focus on the development of this new technology following the planned goals. The results we will get will be of great help to compare the performance of our MAN against other similar models powered by traditional fuels.The experience will also serve other teams and the organization itself to encourage more currys bal to compete in the future with technological solutions that are more environmentally friendly”.

The KH-7 Epsilon Team finished yesterday’s prologue with a time of 12:09, which would have placed it in 30th position in the absolute truck classification. The team will face today’s stage, 367 km clocked fifteen minutes after the start of the last participant.